Ofsted

Ofsted today launches Parent View, a new online questionnaire that will allow parents and carers to give their views on their child’s school at any time of the year. Covering over 22,000 schools across England, the 12-question survey will help other parents as they make important choices about their child’s education and provide Ofsted with information about schools that will help inform priorities for inspection.

Parent View has been produced with the assistance of a panel of parents who contributed to shaping the questions and the way the site functions. The questionnaire covers a range of topics, including quality of teaching, bullying, behaviour and levels of homework, allowing parents to give a view about their child’s school on each issue, with a final question as to whether or not they would recommend the school to other parents. The questionnaire does not allow free text comments but invites responses to a series of closed questions.

The questions were carefully chosen to cover those issues that parents told Ofsted are the most important to them. They are also designed to provide Ofsted with the information to support decisions about inspection and will give head teachers a direct route into gathering the views of their parent group.

Launching Parent View, Baroness Sally Morgan, Ofsted Chair said:

'Parents know how valuable the insight of other mums and dads can be when making choices about schools. Parent View will provide a comprehensive national platform for gathering this information. Parent View will also give parents and carers in England the opportunity to make their voice heard when it comes to the performance of their child’s school. What parents tell us through these questionnaires will be considered when making decisions about when a school should be inspected.

'Whilst parents’ views alone cannot trigger an inspection, they will provide a vital piece of the jigsaw. I hope everyone with an interest in education will welcome this innovation and that parents around the country will use Parent View to make their views count.'

The results for each school will be published on the website in real time. They will then be saved at the end of the academic year so that every school will have an on-going year-on-year picture available to view.

Ofsted will monitor the results for each school and where concerns become clear these will be assessed by Her Majesty’s Inspectors. The findings will form one element of the risk assessment Ofsted undertakes to decide, for example whether an outstanding school’s performance appears to have declined and therefore the school needs to be inspected. They will also be part of the information that inspectors consider in preparation for any routine school inspection.

Taking on board feedback from Ofsted’s parents’ panel and concerns from schools, a balance of measures, including a registration process with password, have been put in place to help ensure the security of the website and to treat schools fairly, while making sure it is accessible for parents to use. Systems are also in place to flag potential signs of misuse and appropriate action will be taken where this is clear. Head teachers will be able to report concerns to Ofsted if they fear that Parent View has been misused.

'We have had to strike a balance in making sure that the site is accessible and easy for parents to use, and ensuring that any abuse is limited and can be spotted,' said Sally Morgan. 'We have listened to parents in coming up with what I think is a sensible starting point which will enable us to keep this issue under review as parents start using the site.'